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Originally Posted by Astromann  Its a question of how many they want to sell really...and that has a bearing on total profit more than anything else, but maybe they just want to sell fewer items and more elitely to keep the pro image of the product. |
The costing of the Burl B2 has nothing to do with keeping the pro image of the product.
Rather, the price of the Burl was determined by totaling up the Bill of Materials (BOM), adding in the labor and utilities required to build the product and coming up with the Cost of Goods Sold (COGS).
A multiplier is used to derive a MSRP, from which all dealer and distributor discounts are calculated. The dealers and distributors then set the prices based on their cost of doing business. This path is usual and customary in the pro audio industry - the margins are much less than in the MI (Musical Instrument) business.
All of the parts in the Burl B2 Bomber (and the B1 Mic Pre) are of the highest caliber, and great care is taken in their selection and implementation. No one is getting rich off of the products, everyone is just trying to earn a living.
Burl is one of the few manufacturers who are happy to show their product with the top off, so that the components and build quality are visible for all to see. Keep in mind that Rich Williams, the lead designer and founder of Burl Audio is also a musician and recording engineer. As a customer of pro audio products, he is very sensitive to the pricing issue and wants them to be as afordable as possible.
As Burl adds and sells more products as time goes on, if economies of scale result in cost reductions I would expect they will pass them along to the audio public.
-gil